Jan 24, 2018 This set of 2' Small Blind, Big Blind and Dealer poker buttons will lend your game a distinct casino feel. Product details Shipping Weight: 1.9 ounces ( View shipping rates and policies ). 10 days ago Usually there are two blinds — the small blind and the big blind. For example, in a $4-$8 game, the small blind (SB) is two $1 chips placed on the board by the player seated just to the left of the. Small Blind The small blind is a unique situation in that you already have half a bet in the pot. This means that you can see the flop for a discounted price. For this reason, you will see the flop in an unraised pot with any of the above hands and QT, JT, K8s, K7s, K6s, K5s, K4s, K3s, and K2s from the small blind.
There is a popular trend developing in the poker world. People are starting to realize they should defend more often against small raises with a wider range of hands.
Poker Rules Small Blind Big Blind
I've been told that I fold too much, so finally I've started calling and three-betting with a wider range from the blinds and the button when facing frequent opens from aggressive players.
Being a tight-passive, small stakes player, I wasn't easily convinced to get outside of my comfort zone, but I'm glad I did. In this series, I will share with you some of my 'a-ha!' moments while making this transition in hopes that you, too, will begin to widen your defending ranges appropriately.
How Often Should We Defend the Big Blind?
Let's say I am in the big blind facing a steal attempt from the cutoff. It's a nine-handed multi-table tournament with antes that are 10 percent the size of the big blind.
If villain makes it 2.2x the big blind to go, the bet needs to work as a complete bluff only 47 percent of the time in order to break even. This means that the players left to act must collectively defend 53 percent of the time to prevent him from making money with any two cards.
This number doesn't even take into account that the raiser has some postflop equity when called. Since players in the small stakes games I play do not defend nearly often enough in spots like this late in an MTT, aggressive regulars profit by raising with very wide ranges.
What Sort of Hands Should We Defend?
In the past when I was one of those players left to act, I'd think to myself 'I know this clown doesn't have anything.' I couldn't wait until I finally got a hand with which to catch him. The problem is that those top hands never seem to come often enough.
Nowadays, I know that if he doesn't have anything the vast majority of the time, then I don't need much of a hand to play back at him. The opener's range in this spot is often so wide that it creates an opportunity for me to profit with a wide range as well. I can either call and take the great price I am being offered, or I can three-bet to try and resteal his steal attempt.
In our example, I am facing a 2.2x open in the big blind. It costs me 1.2 BB to see a flop in a 5.9 BB pot. That means I only need to win this pot around 20 percent of the time to break even.
It's true that this is hard to do from out of position with a bad hand, but consider that even a hand as raggy as flops two pair-plus or a combo draw almost 10 percent of the time. If I also continue with any naked flush draw, that gets me up to 17 percent of the time. If I am at all capable of donk betting or check-raise bluffing with backdoor draws or winning with weak one-pair hands, then I can easily continue at least another 3 percent of the time to make this call break even at worst.
Postflop play is beyond the scope of this article, but taking aggressive lines such as these helps me to avoid the 'fit or fold' mentality and win more often which, in turn, encourages me to defend more often. That said, I try not to go crazy with this, so I stick with hands like suited three-gappers or better that have the potential to flop combo draws I can barrel.
How Often Do We Need to Win?
I used to hate calling out of position with the trashiest of these hands. I felt like I was throwing good money after bad until I started playing my backdoor draws aggressively postflop and winning more than my fair share of hands.
If you're a small stakes player like me, then maybe you too failed to realize that losing even as much as 75 percent of the time means that we win 25 percent of the time — which is profitable when we only need to win 20 percent of the time to break even. This bit of math was eye-opening for me.
We Can Also Defend By Three-Betting
Sometimes instead of just calling, I will occasionally want to defend against loose opens by three-betting for value with hands like ace-king or QQ+. In order to be somewhat balanced, I will three-bet bluff occasionally as well. The fact that I get to use the big blind as a part of my three-bet means I am getting a healthy discount on this play.
Let's say I want to 3x villain's 2.2x open as a bluff. On the surface, it seems that this bet should cost me 6.6 big blinds. In actuality, it only costs me 5.6 BBs because I have already put my big blind into the pot. This 3x three-bet bluff only needs to work a little more than 54 percent of the time to break even. The hunter has now become the hunted. If I only try this against villains who fold more than 46 percent of their raising range, this bet is profitable with any two cards.
Generally, I will do this with hands just below my flatting range. Since I call in the big blind with most of the hands that can flop good straight and/or flush draws, my three-bet bluffing range will consist of hands that are just a little too weak to flat like or hands with blocker value like .
Again, I will only go this wide if I think villain will fold to the three-bet often. If I expect some flats, then I will three-bet bluff with hands that flop better than these.
Conclusion
The math in this article shows that it is pretty hard to go wrong defending the big blind against small steal attempts with a wide range of hands. For the most part, we should be flatting most hands that flop somewhat decently and ocassionally three-betting both for value and as a bluff.
Things get a little bit trickier when we are in the small blind. We'll continue this discussion by considering how to approach that position next week.
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The blinds are forced bets posted by players to the left of the dealer button in flop-stylepoker games. The number of blinds is usually two, but it can range from none to three.
Poker Regeln Small Blind Big Blind
The small blind is placed by the player to the left of the dealer button and the big blind is then posted by the next player to the left. The one exception is when there are only two players (a 'heads-up' game), when the player on the button is the small blind, and the other player is the big blind. (Both the player and the bet may be referred to as big or small blind.)
After the cards are dealt, the player to the left of the big blind is the first to act during the first betting round. If any players call the big blind, the big blind is then given an extra opportunity to raise. This is known as a live blind. If the live blind checks, the betting round then ends.
Generally, the 'big blind' is equal to the minimum bet. The 'small blind' is normally half the big blind. In cases where posting exactly half the big blind is impractical due to the big blind being some odd-valued denomination, the small blind is rounded (usually down) to the nearest practical value. For example, if the big blind in a live table game is $3, then the small blind will usually be $1 or $2 since most casinos do not distribute large quantities of $0.50 poker chips.
The blinds exist because Omaha and Texas hold 'em are frequently played without antes, allowing a player to fold his hand without placing a bet. The blind bets introduce a regular cost to take part in the game, thus inducing a player to enter pots in an attempt to compensate for that expense.
It is possible to play without blinds. The minimum bet is then the lowest denomination chip in play, and tossing only one chip is considered as a call. Anything higher than that is considered a raise. Poker without blinds is usually played with everyone posting an ante to receive cards.
- 1Blinds in cash games
- 2Blinds in tournament play
Blinds in cash games[edit]
In cash games, otherwise known as ring games, blinds primarily serve to ensure all players are subject to some minimum, ongoing cost for participating in the game. This encourages players to play hands they otherwise might not, thereby increasing the average size of the pots and, by extension, increasing the amount of rake earned by the cardroom hosting the game.
In cash games, the amount of the blinds are normally fixed for each particular table and will not change for the duration of the game. However, many cardrooms will allow blind levels to change in cases where all players unanimously agree to a change. Larger cardrooms will often include tables with different blind levels to give players the option of playing at whatever stakes they are most comfortable with. In online poker, blinds range from as little as one U.S. cent to USD1,000 or more.
The minimum and maximum buy-in at a table is usually set in relation to the big blind. At live games, the minimum buy-in is usually between 20 and 50 big blinds, while the maximum buy-in is usually between 100 and 250 big blinds. Some online cardrooms offer 'short stack' tables where the maximum buy-in is 50 big blinds or less and/or 'deep stack' tables where the minimum buy-in is 100 big blinds or more.
Missed blinds[edit]
In cash games that do not deal cards to players who are absent from the table at the start of the hand (or, in online games, are designated as 'sitting out'), special rules are necessary to deal with players who miss their blinds.
In such a situation, if a player misses his or her big blind, he or she will not be dealt in again until the button has passed. At that point, if the player wishes to rejoin the game, he or she must 'super-post' - he or she must post both the big and small blinds in order to be dealt cards. Of these, only the big blind is considered 'live' while the small blind is 'dead' - it is placed in the center of the pot apart from the big blind and will not count towards calling any additional bets or raises by other players. If the player has only missed the small blind, then the same procedure applies except that the player only has to post the 'dead' small blind to rejoin the game. Most cardrooms allow players to relieve themselves of these obligations if they wait until they are again due to post the big blind before rejoining the game.
Some cardrooms hosting live cash games do not allow players to miss and/or avoid paying blinds in this manner. In these games, all players with chips on the table are dealt in whether or not they are present at the table. Any blinds due will be posted from the player's stack - depending on the cardroom's rules this will be done either by the dealer, another cardroom employee or a nearby player under staff supervision. Whenever a player has not returned to the table by the time it is his turn to act, his or her hand is automatically folded. Under such rules, if a player wishes to be absent from the table then the only way he or she can avoid paying blinds is to cash out and leave the game altogether.
Blinds in tournament play[edit]
In poker tournament play, blinds serve a dual purpose. In addition to the purpose explained above, blinds are also used to control how long the tournament will last. Before the tournament begins, the players will agree to a blinds structure, usually set by the tournament organizer. This structure defines how long each round is and how much the blinds increase per round. Typically, they are increased at a smooth rate of between 25% and 50% per round over the previous round. As the blinds increase, players need to increase their chip counts (or 'stacks') to stay in the game. The blinds will eventually consume all of a player's stack if he or she does not play to win more.
Unlike many cash games, it is not possible for a player to 'miss' blinds in a tournament. If a player is absent from the table, he will continue to have his or her cards dealt and mucked and will have blinds and, if applicable, antes taken from his stack as they are due, either until he or she returns or until his or her stack is completely consumed by blinds and antes. A player who loses his or her chips in this manner is said to have been 'blinded off.'
Goals[edit]
There are two main goals for the blinds structure:
- Ensure that by the time the desired duration of the tournament is reached, it will be very hard for players with small stacks to stay in the game. This forces players with smaller stacks to play them aggressively, thus increasing their chip count or losing everything quickly.
- Ensure that players, in general, do not have a large stack relative to the blind level.
If desired, antes can be added to further increase the pressure to win more chips.
Example[edit]
If each player in a tournament starts with 5,000 in chips and after four hours, the big blind is 10,000 (with a small blind of 5,000), it will be very difficult for a player with only 15,000 in chips to stay in the game.